CHAPTER VII. FAIRY MUSICBirds of Enchantment--The Legend of Shon ap Shenkin--Harp Music in
Welsh Fairy Tales--Legend of the Magic Harp--Songs and Tunes of the
Tylwyth Teg--The Legend of Iola ap Hugh--Mystic origin of an old Welsh
Air
I.
IN those rare cases where it is not dancing which holds the victim of Tylwyth Teg in its fatal fascination, the seducer is music. There is a class of stories still common in Wales, in which is preserved a wondrously beautiful survival of the primitive mythology. In the vast middle ground between our own commonplace times and the prehistoric ages we encounter more than once the lovely legend of the Birds of Rhiannon, which sang so sweetly that the warrior knights stood listening entranced for eighty years. This legend appears in the Mabinogi of 'Branwen
